Democratic challenger Bill White criticized Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, on Tuesday for pressing state agencies to cut their spending by 5 percent, calling the approach “Soviet-style” budget management.
With Texas facing a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion, White also refused to rule out future tax increases to close the gap.
“Until you look under the hood and see what you can do, and what the state of the economy is, and what the trade-off is, you shouldn’t be making that decision”on taxes, White said at a conference hosted by the Texas Tribune online news site.
White criticized Perry in particular for calling on state agencies to trim their spending by 5 percent to prepare for rough times ahead for the state budget. He promised to take a more deliberate approach to the budget.
“It won’t be done by things that are just across the board, Soviet style, you know, budget management that only career politicians seem to embrace,” White said.
In January, Perry joined Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus, both Republicans, in calling on state agencies to reduce their spending by 5 percent amid declining state revenues.
The request exempted federal entitlement spending on items such as the Medicaid health care program, the primary fund for public schools and teachers retirement benefits.
White, a former mayor of Houston,lawyer and energy executive, repeatedly referred to Perry as a “career politician” who was more interested in sound bites than undertaking careful policy reforms. He also criticized Perry for relying too much on debt to finance road construction and said the longest-serving state governor was taking credit for Texas’ economic strengths without embracing responsibility for policy failures.
He noted that high oil and gas prices in recent years allowed money to stockpile in state coffers, and that the Texas economy historically grows faster than the rest of the country.
White also said that he brought jobs to Houston when he was mayor without help from the state, “nor did I need or want help.” And he said he brought in businesses “without giving them tax dollars.”